US Fails To Tackle Student Visa Abuses Lured by unsupervised, third-party brokers with promises of steady jobs and a chance to sightsee, some foreign college students on summer work programs in the U.S. get a far different taste of life in America. (universitybusiness.com)

Today’s Students Need Leadership Training Like Never Before The idea is that leadership—like scientific disciplines, for example—consists of a set of skills, methodologies, and ideas that can be taught. The difference is that unlike, say, biology, leadership should inform all aspects of life. Leadership programs teach important life skills, such as introspection, cultural sensitivity, moral acuity, people skills, and decision-making acumen. (chronicle.com)

Philip N. Cohen: In Phd Hunt, Men Track Men The general pattern is clear: All major areas showed increased representation of women. However, what’s striking is that the growth in women’s presence was nearly constant across major areas. Except for humanities, which showed the slowest growth for women, and life sciences, which showed the opposite, the gendered order was unchanged: Education at the top, engineering and physical sciences at the bottom — and the gaps are remarkably constant. (Huffington Post)

Randy Proto: Students and Taxpayers Deserve Accountability It’s time our country has real accountability and transparency across the entire higher education landscape ­for-­profit, non­profit, public and private. How? Through balanced regulatory reform which creates a level playing field across all of higher education. Reform where all students, parents and taxpayers get the same information, and all institutions meet the same minimum outcome standards. (Huffington Post)

Oxford, Cambridge Fail To Admit Black Students The racial disparity at the schools extends to Cambridge’s faculty as well. There are no black people among the more than 1,500 academic and lab staff employed by the university. (Huffington Post)

Controversial RateBU.com lets students vote on hotness of women Students at Boston University can now log onto RateBU.com, rate their female classmates as being hot or not, and help compile a list of the top hotties on campus. As you would guess, the site has angered numerous students and prompted the student government to take action. (ht.ly)

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.